Interesting, fun facts: 1 mei 2009

Mexican jumping beans jump because of a larva inside

After the egg has hatched, the larva eats away the inside of the bean, making a hollow for itself. It attaches itself to the bean with many silk threads.

The larva may live for months inside the bean with varying periods of dormancy. If the larva has adequate conditions such as moisture, it will live long enough to go into a pupal stage. Normally in the spring, the moth will force its way out of the bean through a round "trap door", leaving behind the pupal casing. The small, silver and gray-colored moth will live for only a few days.

The beans jump as a survival measure in order to protect the larvae from the heat, which can cause them to dry out. The ultraviolet rays from the sun stimulate them to jump, even in cool temperatures, but leaving them in the sun for extended periods will dehydrate and kill them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_jumping_bean

Lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake in the world

At 1,637 meters (5,370 ft), Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world,^[4] and the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume.^[5] However, Lake Baikal contains less than one third the amount of water as the Caspian Sea, which is the largest lake in the world. Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed in an ancient rift valley and therefore, is long and crescent-shaped with a surface area (31,494 km²/12,160 sq mi), less than that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world^[6] and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.^[7] At more than 25 million years old, it is the oldest lake in the world.^[5]

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_Lake}

Termites use protozoa (a micro-organism) to digest wood

All termites eat cellulose in its various forms as plant fibre. Cellulose is a rich energy source (as demonstrated by the amount of energy released when wood is burned), but remains difficult to digest. Termites rely primarily upon symbiotic protozoa (metamonads) such as Trichonympha, and other microbes in their gut to digest the cellulose for them and absorb the end products for their own use. Gut protozoa, such as Trichonympha, in turn rely on symbiotic bacteria embedded on their surfaces to produce some of the necessary digestive enzymes. This relationship is one of the finest examples of mutualism among animals. Most so called "higher termites", especially in the Family Termitidae, can produce their own cellulase enzymes. However, they still retain a rich gut fauna and primarily rely upon the bacteria. Due to closely related bacterial species, it is strongly presumed that the termites' gut flora are descended from the gut flora of the ancestral wood-eating cockroaches, like those of the genus Cryptocercus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termites

Many smalls spider use silk threads for ballooning (drift away on the wind)

Many small spiders use silk threads for ballooning, the scientific term for the dynamic kiting ^[1] ^[2] spiderlings (mostly) use for dispersal. They extrude several threads into the air and let themselves become carried away with upward winds. Although most rides will end a few meters later, it seems to be a common way for spiders to invade islands. Many sailors have reported that spiders have been caught in their ship's sails, even when far from land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballooning_(spider)

The Texas leafcutter ant cultivates fungus

The Atta texana, is a fungus-farming ant species chiefly found in Texas and Louisiana in the U.S.. It can also be found in a few northeastern states of Mexico. ^[1] It harvests leaves from over 200 types of plants and is considered a major pest to the state's agricultural interests, as it can defoliate a citrus tree in less than 24 hours. Every colony has several queens and up to 2 million workers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_leafcutter_ant

trees can produce various fruits as long as they belong to the same race and be carefully modeled

trees can produce various fruits as long as they belong to the same race and be carefully modeled

book: waarom daarom!

In some countries cormorants are trained by fisherman to catch fish

Humans have historically exploited cormorants' fishing skills, in China, Japan, and Macedonia, where they have been trained by fishermen. A snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish is caught in the bird's throat. When the bird returns to the fisherman's raft, the fisherman helps the bird to remove the fish from its throat. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant